


The Whisper of Fig Trees

by EverythingCanadian



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arthur Morgan Lives, Bessie was Indigenous, Hosea had TB not Arthur, Major characters die off screen, Multi, it'll make sense when you read it, past relationships for arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:16:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22987189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EverythingCanadian/pseuds/EverythingCanadian
Summary: By the small fire they had made for the four of them Arthur had read the sizable note, the list of instructions, and three large and officially signed documents.
Relationships: Abigail Roberts Marston/John Marston/Arthur Morgan, Bessie Matthews/Hosea Matthews, past Arthur/Albert, past Charles/Arthur, past Sadie/Arthur, past mentions of Mary/Arthur and Arthur/Eliza
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	The Whisper of Fig Trees

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not even sure. I own nothing of this. It came and hit me.

Arthur knew what he was getting himself into, had perhaps spread himself too thin over the course of a few months, but he felt it necessary. He had squandered away as much money as he could without it looking suspicious before Hosea had even come to him that one night. The hotel owner in Valentine still held Arthur up in a higher light than the rest of the small town. One of the train station clerks had a soft spot for him as well. He had split his earnings from smaller, solo jobs between a lock box behind the train ticket counter and the floorboards behind the front deck of the inn. 

Abigail had felt something coming. Felt the shifting tides in camp well before Blackwater even happened. The wildness of the West was coming apart at the seams. Once they had settled camp outside of Rhodes she knew that their own time was coming to a close. Hosea and her had had a fair few long conversations that had a lot to do with Abigail and Jack leaving before everything went to shit. 

John had heard everything one morning when he couldn’t sleep and Jack was running with a cold. He had sat down with them by the lake on a fallen log and had taken everything in like a sponge as Hosea and Abigail talked out every detail. He had even asked Hosea what he should do if they were to leave as a family. 

It was by Hosea’s blessing that John could leave with Abigail and Jack whenever things felt that they had gone too far. Arthur had been pulled aside the night after Sean had died and had smacked Arthur’s chest with a thick pack of folded paper. “I need you to take this, pack up everything you can get into the wagon that Abigail and Jack are leaving with, and leave with John once Micah and Dutch are asleep.”

Arthur remembers looking at his father figure as if the older man had grown a second head. Had tried to argue with Hosea. He remembers trying to start a roe with him. 

“Arthur m’boy, I don’t give a damn what you  _ think _ you have to do.  _ I _ need you to get out of this camp, out of Dutch’s line of sight, and live a damn life like you should have with Mary, with Eliza. I need you to get out of here and be a man on the right side of the law for once. I don’t have much time in my bones left so you have no need to worry about the instructions I’m about to give you.”

That was a while ago, a long while ago. 

That night John had packed up Old Boy, had gotten all of his things packed into the wagon Abigail and Jack had left publicly on, and had made a fuss about sleeping back in Arthur’s tent again.That night Arthur had come up with the story that he and John were leaving to go get Abigail back when Javier had asked where they were going. 

Javier had come back with a surprising comment. “Follow her, don’t let yourself get caught. If we ever cross paths again Arthur it better be for the bounty on our heads.”

It never made sense until both he and John had caught up to Abigail and Jack near Wallace station where they would camp for the night. 

By the small fire they had made for the four of them Arthur had read the sizable note, the list of instructions, and three large and officially signed documents. Hosea had gotten them pardons signed by the mayor of Saint Denis and the sheriff of Blackwater. How Arthur still doesn’t know but he knows he sat there clutching the small stack of paper in one hand as he covered his eyes with the other, crying from the release of pressure and the look at a new start for him. He was holding three formal pardons all signed by the actual men and not a con by Hosea. 

The other papers were a few letters from Susan, Charles, and Hosea himself. All of them wished the four well on their new journey. Charles would come visit them as he was not on the posters asking for the heads of the gang. Susan just wanted them to prosper as they were her children in a way. And Hosea’s- Arthur had to stop halfway through so he could lay back in the grass and breath properly. The man was dying of tuberculosis, Hosea didn’t have long at all as the herbs Bessie had taught him to use were waning in their effectiveness now. 

In John’s hands were the papers to a plot of land that Dutch had won in a gambling con a while ago. And as John read the land deed Abigail had to curl herself around John in order for them both to keep it together as Jack slept in the tent they pitched by the firelight.  _ Beecher’s Hope _ was writing in fancy type script on the house deed and  _ ranch land  _ on the second deed. Just after the two deeds were four thin papers that each held a value of 150 dollars of bonds each from the railroad company signed under the name Red Harlow. Arthur had given a wet laugh at that one. 

If Arthur had done his math right, and he had, he had squandered away just over two thousand dollars, had a little over sixty in his pocket and satchel. John had a fair bit from his own jobs. And Abigail, sweet Abigail, had been good enough to break into the chest Dutch had hidden away from camp, and steal well over thirteen hundred in bills and bonds as well. Altogether they had more than enough to start something of their new, free, life. 

But there was a catch that came with the pardon papers. On each one was a stipulation that Hosea had hand written. The current location and con job of the gang along with the expiration date of the pardons.

Arthur knew that they had to hand in the papers in order for their bounties to be let go. Hosea had known they wouldn’t hand over the gang’s location even if it was on Arthur’s pardon paper. So Hosea had done it on all of their papers, securing the arrest or death of them all because there was no way Arthur, John, or Abigail would pass up freedom like this, they wouldn’t let Jack live like an outlaw anymore. 

It is still a vivid memory for Arthur when he walked into Blackwater with his hands up, papers in his waistcoat pocket, and the law on their horses surrounding him as he went to the sheriff’s office slowly. When he handed in those papers he was worried for a moment that the sheriff would throw him in jail anyway and head out to the gang’s location. But the mustached man took one look up at Arthur and sighed. “You’re free to go son, you and that family with you. Mr. Matthews has kept to his words and so will I. You get one chance to this, don’t go waistin’ it.” and with that Arthur waltzed out a freeman, had secured Abigail and John’s freedom too. There was no need for them to run anymore. 

Now Arthur was in Valentine, picking up what he had left behind. Mail, his money, a horse he had left behind that the stable owner surprisingly hadn’t sold. “She got ornery with everyone but us. Couldn’t put her down but we did put her to work. New school got built with her.”

Arthur was happy, proud even, as he had both his horses, all his money save a few hundred to the train clerk and the hotel owner, and now a new order for school books for Jack on the way to Blackwater from Saint Denis. 

He was weary from being on the go for so long and finally just stopping. His body was not used to being in one place for so long. Especially with the fact that they don’t need to run any longer, they could let their guards down a bit. Arthur and John had nearly finished the new home that John and Abigail were going to live in with their little runt. They had the help of a few people that Arthur had helped along his travels, Albert had even sent him a large sum of money that would go towards a new barn, and Albert would not hear of that sum being returned, nor the big framed pieces he sent next. One of Arthur, and one of the horses they got a photo of together. 

John had teased Arthur about Albert a couple times, finally getting Arthur to explain that while he and Albert had flirted they didn’t go any further. It would have been too painful. John had to sit down on the nearly finished deck after that. 

It was a long conversation that needed to be said between them both. Arthur missed Albert painfully so, but Albert now had another man that could love him with everything back in New York, and Arthur was happy that Albert got that stability. But that also meant that Arthur was again back on his own, no one to hang off his arm or be charmed by his stories. No one would catch and hold his eye nor fall into silence from being captured by that blue, blue gaze. 

Charles had come close to being that for Arthur. However both felt it best to let it stay as friendship. Charles had his own needs to attend to like Arthur, both had that comfort of being loved by each other if only as friends. 

Sadie- while Arthur’s type like Eliza, feisty and strong, they knew that Sadie had had her one true love and Jake was it for her, no one else would fit that gap. A few nights of flirtations and cuddling gave them the idea that the sting was too great for Sadie and Arthur was alright with that. 

It was a long and uncomfortable conversation. But it was one that needed to be had between Arthur and John. They had camped out by the half done house that night and shared everything they couldn’t during the few years between John coming back and their leaving the gang for good. Everything got laid out before them. Fears, doubts, regrets, needs, aches, wants, all of it. They had laid back in the grass and dirt by the well made fire pit and had watched the night sky as they opened themselves up.

Arthur talked so much more than usual he went hoarse near the end of his story about being there for Abigail after John had left. “I still have feelings for her John, not many now, but we built up something strong for each other to hang on to. And you- shit when you hit twenty and we celebrated by having apple cider that maybe was too strong- I remember feeling so odd and I wasn’t able to name that feeling until I saw you with Abigail. I was sweet on you back then John. I may have some feelings left over from then too. Both of you are beautiful in your own ways.” Arthur kept his eyes on the stars as he felt John sit up and look at him dead on. 

“Are you drunk?” John said seriously. 

Arthur shook his head, hair tickling his arms under his head. “Nah, sober as I’ve ever been.”

John had gotten up, tripped over his own two feet in order to get over to Arthur, and had promptly sat right next to him. “Both of us?” 

Arthur had looked right at John then, kept their eyes locked together. “Both of you. It’s not as strong now- mind you everything is dull to me these days. I fell in love with you both then and I sure as hell still love you two, just different now is all.”

“And if we were to love you back in much the same way?”

“I’d say you’re talking nonsense.”

“Then we wait for tomorrow and we talk to Abby, she can convince you that it’s true.”

Arthur remembers humming and having John lay down with John’s ear pressed to his chest, just listening as they fell asleep like that. 

Arthur now knew that most of the innocents of the gang got pardoned, it was the main crew of men that were killed: Dutch’s hanging had been in the papers all over the state, Micah had been shot trying to run for it, Bill and Javier went out fighting, Charles got Lenny and himself out and hopefully they were north of the border now, Sadie had been the only woman to hang from the group as Susan had died by an explosion from misthrown dynamite. Everyone else had been cleared or had gotten away. The only death that was not a killing was Hosea, he had died in jail one day, his lungs had finally given up after all that running, all that stress. Arthur knew it was an awfully painful way to go, but Hosea had gone on his own terms rather than the law’s. 

The house was now finished but it was being furnished and decorated. Arthur had Jack next to him outside as he heard Abigail and John moving things around inside. Jack was holding an easy book in one hand and Arthur’s hand in the other. Letters from friends were tied with string into a stack in his satchel, ready to be put into the study he and John had built for Jack and himself. Abigail’s little love bites were sore on his throat from last night as it was their last night at the Blackwater Inn since all their furniture had finally come in from the wood workers in town. 

Jack was giggling as he heard Abigail whoop in triumph. “Mama and papa must be done.”

Arthur smiled down at the boy, his boy now too. “They must be. Let’s go check and see if it’s safe to be inside.” Arthur stood up before reaching down and picking Jack up off the wooden step. “Hang onto me Jackie, don’t want you falling again.”

Jack clung on this time, remembering that he squirmed too much last time and had squirmed right out of Arthur’s grasp and into, thankfully, a pile of dead leaves, grass, and weeds. 

“That’s my boy.” Arthur kissed Jack’s little pudgy cheek before climbing the two porch steps and walking to push the door open. He laughed lightly when he saw Abigail laid over the couch, hair in disarray, sleeves rolled up, and skirts askew. He outright snorted when he saw John laid out with limbs all over the place on the floor, hair wild, shirt hanging over the chair, and his union suit unbuttoned at the top. “I take it it's safe to come in.”

“You’re cooking tonight.” Abigail huffed raggedly. “Why is spruce so heavy?!”

Jack smiled wide before being let down just beside the couch, climbing up and onto Abigail’s lap so he could lay out and cuddle his mama even if she was sweaty and worn out from moving the living room around. 

Arthur shook his head lightly. Oh what a life he lived now. A wife, a husband, a kid, a home. All his. 


End file.
